President Donald Trump, 80, only cares about domestic politics when the outcome directly affects him, his biographer says.
Maggie Haberman, who has covered Trump for over a decade for The New York Times, told Morning Joe on Monday that the president doesn’t appear to care about the economy—or its potential impact on the upcoming midterms—because “This domestic politicking bores him.”
What Trump cares about, Haberman concluded, is Trump.
“It was more interesting to him when it was rallies that were about him,” she continued. “It was more interesting to him when he would say he was fighting for survival—when he was very realistically facing prison time... if he did not win, which he was open about with people in private conversations.”
Haberman agreed with co-host Joe Scarborough that Trump is preoccupied with pet projects like the White House ballroom because that’s what he wants to focus on.
“This is the part where he wants to do what he wants to do,” Haberman said.
“You and I both know, Joe, that often the question with him that people will ask is, ‘Why does he do X, Y, Z?’ And the answer is often, ‘Because he can.’”
Trump also cares less about the fate of the party when his name’s not on the ballot, she added.
“He has told people, and we wrote about this in the book, that he is proud Republicans don’t do well when he’s not on the ballot,” Haberman said.
Instead, Trump is focused on insulating himself and the people around him from potential investigations into his conduct.
“He doesn’t want to get impeached again,” Haberman said. “They don’t want a lot of oversight.”
She said Trump is approaching the presidency—and the potential for personal liability—differently than he did during his first term.
“He has made very clear he’s going to pardon any number of people who have come within a certain number of feet of the Oval Office... The oversight is not as fear-inducing for him as it is for people outside of the Oval Office.”
She said one indicator is the announcement by newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche that executive privilege would extend to advisers outside of the White House who advise on policy.
The move would protect people like outgoing press secretary Karoline Leavitt from future scrutiny.
White House spokesman Kush Desai did not directly respond to the questions asked and instead told the Daily Beast that “turning around Joe Biden’s economic disaster has been a Day One priority for President Trump, who has already secured trillions in investments and lowered the prices of prescription drugs, eggs, and dairy.”
Trump, Haberman concluded, is basically living his best life right now, growing richer than ever before as the president of the United States.
“He’s wealthier, liquid-wise, than he’s ever been in his life,” she pointed out.
But that may have made him complacent.
“He is not personally worried about these investigations. Whether he should be once he leaves office or not is a different question, but he’s not really worried right now.”
